2014-02-12 - Save the Mafia Boss, Save the World
This shit is never easy. The lull appears to be over and Red Hood appears on the internet and Gotham Gazette. He doesn't kill every criminal of course, some are quietly and anonymously left tied up for the cops that the Bat Family never did. Other than criminal comment that it was a guy in a red helmet, no outright claims have been made by the Red Hood. As a result, it shouldn't come to a surprise that he is out and about. Right now he is atop a building, using binoculars to peer into the next building. He is silhouetted against the night sky, the moon only barely peeking out. Red Hood tucks his binoculars away and pulls out something else out. He soon sends it flying as he flings it toward the window, breaking the window. Bright light flashes inside, and pulling a grapple gun free he shoots it to lock onto the other building's roof top and then drops, flying flight straight for the busted up window with those inside blinded! There will still be a shatter at connection, and the sharp report of gunfire. For those that know about this building, it is owned by the Russian Mafia. It is fully staffed and taking it down wouldn't be fun and games. Cable body slides in from another angle and another roof top. The problem with the Russian Mob is two fold. They never look at the big picture and they always call you Bro. These guys had been hassling some people Cable didn't need to hassle. His eye glows as he scans the building. Present nearby, though on the opposite side of the building of Red Hood, is a small contingent of the Bat Family. Nightwing, Batwing, and Robin all wait and observe the building, coincidentially there with the others. Nightwing is watching through some night-vision binoculars, but the sound of glass breaking and gunfire catches Nightwing's attention, and lowers the binoculars. He points over to the building, "Sounds like we aren't alone." Batwing glances over at his mentor and snorts. "Clearly," he says and reaches for his grapple gun. "Do we attack?" he asks before glancing over the building sizing up some entry points. "Are we ever?" Robin is already pulling up the buildings schematics on his wrist computer and staring at them. He makes sure that both Nightwing and Batwing can see the screen as well. "Dibs on the sky light." he says quickly, if only because he wants to get the most dramatic entrance. The building is six stories high, and has armed security, and hell, most of the attendents there in this 'busniess building' are armed. There are security systems that send out alerts to other branches of the Russian mafia as well, but not the cops. It is a beautiful building however, histroical, and lots of flavor. Yes, damn sky light. The late hour means it isn't too crowded though, just a few late night buildings or some members filing paperwork to launder money and the like. It's high class, and it's dirty from the ethical standpoint. The signals though appear to have been cut, no alarms are sounding, was it do to Red Hood or Robin's hard work? In either case, the firing pauses inside for a little bit. The window that was broken was on the 5th story. Nightwing looks to Robin, "All right, you go from the air, Batwing you will go with me on the ground floor to help make sure no one gets out until we are done. We will move up from there." He scowls, "Best get going, response time may be slow, but it still exists." He pulls out his own grappling gun and shoots it to the ground and begins making his way down it and towards the door. Batwing needs no other encouragement than Nightwing's lead. He fires his own grappling hook and then zips down to ground level keeping low and moving for the door. He grabs his eskrima sticks and clicks them open. "Do we wait for them to come to us or do we go to them?" Cable's head turns up at the gun fire. Now that the problem with Gotham, criminals preyed on each other as much as the innocents. He takes pulls out a pair of plasma pistol. Then he takes off at a run and as he leaps forward, "Professor, Body Slide." Then there's a flash of light Cable's gone and re-appearing as he goes crashing through a window. "I hate this city." "One sec." Robin is letting his fingers dance across the keys of his wrist computer which has allowed him a few extra moments to attempt to reroute a few of the authorities that may be responding to the gunfire call. He smirks a bit at his hax0rz and then disengages the computer. That'll give them a little more time to deal with the shenanigans inside and keep cops from getting caught in the crossfire. "Guys, check it, I..." Batwing and Nightwing are gone. Robin frowns. "You guys never stick around for my tech stuff. I'm starting to think you don't care." Mr. Sarcastic makes sure that comes through the comms as he's soaring up via his own grapple line to the roof. He tucks and rolls, stealth-sprinting to the sky light and uses his Bird's Eye View lenses (ha!) to peer down and through his favorite entrance. On the second floor in one of the inner meeting rooms, a man slaps a young girl across the face hard, leaving a red welp behind. "If you no talk, we can just kill you." Tears stain the girl's face and her lower lip quivers, but her chin is held up in the air and proud. She doesn't say a single word. Peering down through the skylight, Robin can see a security guard of the facility racing toward the stairwell, passing just beneath the skylight. Likely it is in response to the gunfire. The office Cable appears in is simple with a large desk, computer, printer, fax, phone, and so on. It appears 'normal'. Course, the photos on the wall reveal members of the Russian Mob. "Better to make the decision than to give your opponent the luxury of choices," Nightwing blinks as he hears more glass break. "Let's go." With that, he pulls out his eskrima sticks and sees the doors. As they are glass and lacking an ID to run past the scanner, and not wanting to spend the time to get past it, he returns a stick to his hip and pulls out a glass cutter and begins cutting a hole in the glass. It takes about 20 precious seconds, but the hole is cut, and Nightwing will be able to reach the emergency release. That means fire alarm. However, with security disabled, that means the fire alarms aren't going to actually call the fire department either. However, the internal fire alarm and the blaring sound...that isn't disabled so much... Cable looks around, "Corporate hell? Even for the Track Suit bros?" Then he stars scanning through the room, his cybernetic eye lets him see through walls. He smiles, "There we go." Then he starts to kick down the door and run towards the girl. Batwing follows Nightwing into the building and slips one of his sticks away to grab a handful of smoke pellets. Just in case. He also switches his domino mask to heat vision, scanning through the room and some of the thinner walls for signs of Russian mobsters. "I've got our left flank," he reports to Nightwing over comms now that the fire alarms have made it hard to hear much that's spoken otherwise. Robin narrows his eyes and just pops the lock on the sky light. There's a frown on his features because he was totally going to smash through the glass but this is just a bit more stealthy. Grapple line connected he drops down through the open light, glove gripping the cord as he drops down and behind the security guard. "Your wife and kids will thank me for this." is all he has to say before he grips the guard up and disappears with him into the shadows. 5 Seconds Later... Robin stumbles out of the shadows, adjusting his cape. "Guys. Watch out for the security guards. Especially the old ones. They're spry." Robin speaks through the comms whilst pulling up the building schematics again so he can shut down this damn alarm. Gotta' find a box to jack into. Nightwing enterse the Nightwing-shaped hole in the glass and follows suit in turning his mask to infrared, speaking into his comm . Heading right he scans for any potential threats, keeping to the walls to avoid being spotted. While Cable kicking down doors and giving some security guards running about a HELLO, SURPRISE BROS!!! Red Hood is now on the 4th floor, having thrown some documentation into a tote bag he has looped over one shoulder. "Son of a....wasn't in the damn meeting," he growls, cursing in Russian! Russian may be his least fluent language, but he can curse beautifully in it! Well, the down and dirty kind of beautiful. He is soon heading toward the third floor. He almost runs into the stairwell door though when the fire alarm goes off. "Son of a....!" He is then into the stairwell to enjoy the damn echos! The box is generally on the lower foor, but there are the red handle triggers that he might be able to hack on each floor if he wants to get into the wiring. likely more hassle than worth. Two security guards guards catch sight of Cable and they don't halt to ask questions, they start to pull their guns to start shooting! Obviously people. On the other hand, the first floor is quiet, at least until the two approach the stairwell. That is where the security office is, and the door of it is flung open and guess who opens fire? Oh yes, a SECURITY GUARD. Damn one-way mirrors. Cable's fast and he's durable. The occasional telepathic mind trick or telekenetic nudge, the guns aren't going to be hurting him. He lines up shots firing at them. "Ugh. I hate these old buildings. Everything's hackable in Metropolis." These mutters are mostly to himself before Robin heads for the stairs. He's moving quickly and silently, as if the alarms blaring aren't cover enough for his travels, in an attempt to get down the stairs as quickly as possible and to the floor where the madness seems to be happening. Er, the Russian madness. Not the Heroic madness. Small difference. Batwing rolls when he hears the shot. "Tt. Guns." He mutters as he lets fly with a flashbang pellet it explodes in front of the man's face, blinding him. A batarang follows ripping the gun from his hand. He leaves the take down to Nightwing and presses on up the stairs. < Robin. We're coming up the stairs to the second floor. Location? > The plasma guns go off, burning a hole through the two security guards cleanly. And that is when Red Hood comes out of the stairwell and, "OH FUCK!" He DUCKS! Yes, obviously, he ducks. Thank you very much, did NOT want to his his red helmeted head plasma'ed off! "If you aren't Russian, stop shooting!" He had tumbled and rolled away behind a wall. Man, what a night! This is why he likes to work solo! As Robin heads down the stairwell he can hear gunfire, he can hear...plasma fire?! Alright, things are just craaaaazy. Nightwing does not take kindly to being shot at. Not one bit. He watches the guard get disarmed and notes Batwing's actions, but doesn't take time to ask. Instead, he is soon charging the guard over the wet floor, years of practice keeping his feet. As he approaches the guard, the two sticks are coming at the guard's knees, followed up by two quick strikes to the man's head to knock him out. Once the guard is dealt with, Nightwing looks about the room to see if there is anything important in there. Now there's a Gotham crazy in a red mask and the cyborg stops firing for a moment and aiming. Plasma turns cover into goop just like it does you. "Alright, you got five seconds to tell me who you are and why I don't want to shoot you." He was aiming for the helmet. The security guard goes down hard with a grunt! He isn't much of a battle once disarmed by Batwing and faced with the flexibility and quickness of Nightwing. < Stairwell. 4th Floor. Hurry up, Slowpokes. > Yes, this is where Robin is at the door and waiting. Well, not exactly waiting so much as going into one of his pouches to grab at some smoke pellets, because he's pretty sure he's going to need them. And then he's back to taking the stairs two at a time, since he's pretty sure things are going to get real once he hits the next floor. Even over the sound of the alarms the sound of that gunfire isn't right. Batwing shoots a look down the stairs at Nightwing when the guard goes down. < Something's not right upstairs, we need to move. > Then when Tim chimes in. He grits out < We're coming. I'm the one stuck with the old man. > There is a faint grin thrown at Nightwing, that's what he gets for calling Batwing kid all the time. "If you are killing Russia mobsters, we are at least semi on the same side. I want one guy alive and to drag out of here. Let's say, he's targeting the wrong person. The rest are yours to have fun with as you please. And I do try not to kill the good guys, makes me sad," the sarcastic tone definitely to Red Hood's voice. "That, and I got a couple grenades, suck if whatever you are after is blown up to hell and back again," Red Hood states. There is a girl's scream of pain, and some Russian shouting from down the hall, a slam of the door. Red Hood says, "Shit," and then he is dodging out of cover, TOWARD Cable, because an automatic gun is suddenly going off down the hallway and right where Red Hood was hiding. "We are best friends now man, deal with it!" He also tucks the grenade away. It has too much of a blast radius to risk when he heard the scream from a girl, pulling free a smoke bomb instead which he tosses behind him and it rebounds off the wall and down into the hallway to go off. < I've been doing since this you two were in diapers. True, that was last week, but still... > Nightwing grins as he finishes securing the room. Taking the stairs he bounds up effortlessly, stairs being as natural to him as going on level ground. He makes his way in the direction of the most recent gunshots. Batwing snorts and follows Nightwing up the stairs. His own steps aren't so easy as the taller Nightwing, but he keeps up. < Converging on the gunshots, meet us there Robin. > Before Cable can answer there's a scream from the girl and Cable's head whips around. He ignores the Red Hood other than to drop a pistol and grab the man pulling him behind him. Then he takes off at a run towards the mobsters pistol blazing. "I don't care just got to get that girl out of here." With smoke pellets in hand and some of his throwing discs in the other, Robin wastes no time as he gets to the door of the floor where all the action is happening. < Way ahead of you, Baby Bat. > And then he's throwing open the door and leaping out with the intent to thro-- pause. "Okay. That was anti-climactic." He stands up straight from his immediate crouch position cuz, y'know, he hears gunfire. His lenses flash against his eyes: Detective Mode On. Red Hood almost laughs hysterically when he suddenly has this massive muscle of flesh with cybernetics blocking his view. "This is...comical if not so sad." But he's then running in behind Cable. "Just let me enter the room Mr. Big! I need the guy likely inside alive, sadly." Cable does have some cover from the smoke bomb that Red Hood threw earlier, which makes things easier for him and his cybernetic eye to take down the two Russian mafia bodyguards. And that is what Robin catches when the door to the stairwell bursts open. The sound of gunfire, the view of a large man and a more slender man slipping into the thinning smoke down a hallway that turns to the right. What is this? The White Rabbit? Sucks feeling like Alice. And that darn blaring sound from the fire alarms! The pistol catches one door on fire as cable has no mercy for the Mobster turning his cover and him into slag. The other one dying too. He hasn't ran into the bats either. "Great, who are you, a want to be Deadpool? Don't you know there's a league of the Bat running around? I hate this damn city." Nightwing continues up the stairs and towards the noise, until he hears Cable speak, "A colony of bats. That is probably the correct word. Also, put the gun down." His voice has a familiar snark to it, exchanging an eskrima stick for a wingding on his belt, "You too," he says to Red Hood. "There are a few ways to handle this, I suggest the way that involves you two giving up now." Batwing gives Robin a shove as he passes through the doorway and stands beside Nightwing, his own stick is gone know, replaced with a pair of red painted batarangs, gripped around the middle to uses as double bladed knives. "Or we could do it the other way," he says with an eager grin. "I didn't get to blow up the last cyborg." "Dude. Cooties." Robin says, though he's backing up both Nightwing and Batwing as he takes up residence in line with them, on the other side of Batwing. His own throwing discs (marked with the distinct Robin R!) are held between his fingers because he was already prepared. The smoke pellets have been repouched, likely. "Come on, guys, let's hear 'em out first." Robin throws on a snarky grin of his own accord. "And by that I mean let's hear 'em scream." There. He's added a threat to the collective too. "Like hell, that guy is clown fishing about now. I sent him on a wild goose chase to keep him occupied till I need some crazy in my plans. Who the hell are you, Robocop?" Has Cable even seen that classic movie? "And ya, the bats are annoying as hell. Good thing I'm better at my work, nicer, and better looking." With the two thugs down, Red Hood goes to slide/skid past Cable to the door that appears to be the inside meeting room (no windows). It is possible the two are overheard considering they have to scream and yell at each other to be heard over the damn fire alarm blaring! In either case, Red Hood glances down the hall, "And look, your fan club is here Robocop," before he actually shoots the door handle and lock downward so there isn't a stray bullet, and charges into it. As it flings open, he tucks and rolls, coming up firing even as bullets fire toward the doorway. He doesn't fire to kill this time though, he fires to injure, blasting the mobster's arm so he drops the gun and his thigh so he goes down hard while dual weilding two handguns. The good news, Cable and Red Hood reached their targets first. The bad news, escaping with the Bat Family enclosing will be more difficult. The girl is spitting blood out of her mouth, tears running down her cheeks as she tries to hold back her own screams and sobs. She's terrified, but she's fighting to keep it together, to be brave. She is tied to a chair. "Ah hell, beating up a little girl. What lowlifes," is Red Hood's comment over the screaming pains of the mafia boss. Cable looks at Nightwing before turning to run behind the Rood. "Stab my eyes. I don't have time for this. Look all I want is the girl and to take her somewhere safe. Don't you have a Jay walker to go rough up?" He says turning to the girl and offers his non metallic arm, "Sarah, come with me if you want to live. I'm to take you to McTaggart." Cable looks at Nightwing before turning to run behind the Rood. "Stab my eyes. I don't have time for this. Look all I want is the girl and to take her somewhere safe. Don't you have a Jay walker to go rough up?" Seeing the girl he pulls out a knife and goes to cut the ropes off her. He says turning to the girl and offers his non metallic arm, "Sarah, come with me if you want to live. I'm to take you to McTaggart." Nightwing scowls, "One, we do /not/ take kindly to others doing work on our turf. Two, that girl is going to the authorities. Three, you two are going to take a seat." He raises a brow and looks to Robin and Batwing, "They do get a chance to take the easy way. I am sure that they will take that route." He glares at the other two, taking a few steps closer to Cable and Red Hood, "Aren't you." Not a question, a statement. Batwing's whole body is tensed. "What was that you were saying earlier about denying the enemy choices?" he asks Nightwing, but he doesn't move except to fan out and be ready for the throw down with the cyborg and Hood. Robin is somewhere between Nightwing's Intimidation and Batwing's Anxiousness. The way he's standing makes it look like he's ready to fight, but he's also still and staring at both of the possible aggressors to make sure that he's ready to defend if necessary. This time, he doesn't have anything to say or include with the others. They're saying enough. Not to mention that sometimes silence can be just as big of a motivator. He pulls one disc up and holds it threateningly, poised and ready to throw on Nightwing's order. Sarah appears frightened, but still proud. She stares at Cable, really stares at him, looking into his one glowing eye. She reaches out slowly as stinging pain enters her limbs again and draws a whimper from her. "You have a...sad eye." But she moves to grip Cable's arm, seeming to trust him though she doesn't know him. She then looks toward Nightwing, "I go with the man with the sad eye. He understands what I cannot block out." She clings to Cable's arm now, her body shaking from pain and...more. "The...rage. Need to...leave, please." She's starting to sniffer now. "That girl isn't normal, is she man?" Red Hood isn't sitting down as his voice is altered within the helmet, different from the way it sounded when Damian met him on the roof top. He moves to grab the Russian mob boss, handcuffing him and pulling a cloth out from a jacket pocket to cover his mouth with. He is actually chloroformed, knocking him out cold. "And I have a delivery to make with this guy. If it helps at all, na, you know what? I'll just kick all your asses for being morons," he states with confidence. "Good practice for when the real fun starts." But Hood's body suddenly tenses at the appearance of Robin, his aggression level spiking, which causes the girl to try and climb up into poor Cable's arms as she screams above the fire alarm. Hood actually winces at the scream from the girl. Cable wraps his arm around the little girl. "Listen to the little one. That's tactically sound." He looks up to NO where, "Professor body slide by two." Then Cable and the little girl disappear. "Touche, kid, touche, it's a rule, there are exceptions," Nightwing grins darkly, but before he can make a remark to Cable, he is gone, leaving the Bats and the Hood. Stepping closer, Nightwing scowls and says to Red Hood, "Give up now, it would be better for all of us. Clock's ticking, don't be a fool." His eskrima sticks are still held defensively, but Nightwing is ready to spring if need be. Batwing stares at the space where Cable had been standing. His jaw sets and he tts at himself. Of course. Then he turns to Red Hood, his tension dials waaay down. "So, we going to fight?" he asks. "Is that how you're going to get your chance to show off to Batman? Fighting us?" "You realize you could've just sent him a letter, right? He reads his fan mail. He doesn't answer it, but he reads it." Robin can't help but to toss some sarcastic quippery off in the direction of the Red Hood right now. If only because the Double Wing Connection are also talking stuff. This is a lot of talking. Nightwing must be stalling for the authority arrival. Good plan. "Here, let me get you the P.O. Box Address..." And Robin is already moving one hand to pretend to fiddle with one of his pouches. Look, this is an interactive quip. Gotta' own those, man. Red Hood says, "Be a nice trick to have," the bodysliding thing. But he then "Tt," right back at Batwing. "You guys already lost. Nightwing will try and get the one gun I'm still holding out of my hand with a wingding, and then try to take out my knees. You will try and distract me with a batarang kid, then charge in with a knife, you have a pattern. The replacement he's just a disappointment. He would hang back and wait for an opening to do a distance attack most likely, or try to get my prize from me so he can 'play the big bad hero'. Too predictable batkids." Red Hood then moves to lift the mafia boss over one shoulder with a grunt. "I'm going to walk out of here, do the delivery, and actually save lives without killing anyone for once. Oh, unless you let the guys on the fifth floor finish bleeding out, then people would have died indirectly by my actions. Otherwise, you notice everyone else dead, is by a plasma gun, not me. But then the gun is placed against the mafia's bosses head. "Hands where I can see them replacement," Red Hood warns. "I hate to lose my prize to make a point, but I will. Now move, cause if I blow my prize's head off, saving innocent lives will be more difficult as I'll be missing half my damn proof." Nightwing glares at the man, unphased at his tactics being said, "Odd choice of words, also kind of creepy how much you know," he remarks. His grips on the stick tightens and keeps glaring, "And where are you taking him?" Batwing glances down at the batarangs in his hands and then up at Red Hood frowning. He had called it correctly. Nightwing's comment about how well Red Hood knows them, earns a slight tightening of his jaw and a glance towards Red Hood. Someone hasn't told everyone everything. Then he looks back to Nightwing. "We're letting him go?" "Lose the football helmet and maybe you could see better. Food for thought." Robin drops the hand from his pouch to his side, but he doesn't dare raise them up. His hands are there, where they can be seen and its just like Robin to be this damn petty since this maniac didn't specify where his own light of sight was. So there. Technical Victory! Robin's expression is neutral as he simply doesn't want to give away anything else. He's still got a trick or two up his sleeve to play. He can wait. Bishop to D7, Hood. A chuckle, "You know you are becoming more and more like HIM. You should watch yourself Nightwing. When was the last time you went out and had fun? That you just FLEW like you were born to do? Let it all go? You should do that tonight. Forget about this for now, we will cross paths again in Bludhaven. I'll stop for a visit. You know what? I promise to visit each of you and I'll answer one question each when I do! However, it can't be 'Who are you?' as that would not be considered a valid question or any variations of it. So think on your question very carefully." It sounds more like a threat than a promise. "No promises you will like the answers though. It's overdue to start the story, or is that end it?" His voice goes very serious. "Pity, it's not very funny at all." Red Hood then starts to move. He moves in an experienced manner, careful to keep potential openings to a minimum and using his 'hostage' in the position as shield as long as it doesn't block his vision. He skirts about the place, and soon kicks the chair HARD toward Robin that the girl was tied too. "Move replacement," his tone less friendly toward Robin than it was toward Nightwing or Batwing. "Rather my finger didn't twitch cause you made me nervous." Nightwing sighs and shakes his head. "We have to. There are people hurt upstairs, and the only way we can get to him is through the hostage." Hood's remarks result in a snarl and a glare, though the mention of flying catches him offguard, and he even blinks. "What? And you had best just hand that man over to the authorities. I will not abide killing!" The anger in his voice is evident, his knuckles white under his gloves around the stick. He wants to act, but knows he can't. "I look forward to it," Batwing says of the future visit. He doesn't make any threats now. That could wait until later. He steps aside to let the Red Hood go. "That outfit should make you nervous. What is that, Pleather? Seriously?" Robin's movements are as smooth and simple, as he moves out of the way of the chair and his expression remains as neutral as possible. He makes sure that his cape flourishes as he dodges such barbaric actions and there's just the slightest flick of his wrist during all that commotion, but when all is said and done, he's standing away from the Red Hood and back in his neutral positioning. But he can't keep his mouth closed. He just can't. "Catch you later, Red Herring." And boy does he mean it. A careful look at the corner of Robin's mouth will show the beginnings of a smirk. He's fighting it though. "You really forgot how to fly, didn't you?" This said toward Nightwing. "A pity." He almost...sounds sorry for Nightwing. But he just jerks his head slightly in a nod toward Batwing, "No problem kid," actually sounding a bit happy at seeing Batwing again, almost anyway. Though toward Robin, "I'm not the White Rabbit replacement. I'm the ending joke," the bitterness there. But Red Hood is out the doorway carefully. "And like I said, dead means half my evidence gone, and that would suck. I'd wink, but the effect would seriously be loss, don't you think?" And then Red Hood is backing up, and then running down the short hallway to dart about the corner. That is when he notices the dropped plasma pistol on the ground. His gun is put away and he snatches the other one up. Maybe, he will run into that big Robocop again soon, he kinda liked that guy anyway. But let's just say, Hood is heading out of the building and tossing said someone in the trunk before driving off to the Avengers Mansion! He has a cardboard sign in the car and plenty of rope and he's stupidly taking a page from Deadpool's book cause he thinks it would be funny! "Black Widow, boy do I have the medicine for you to make your day!" See, befriending him on twitter is a good thing! He does NICE things for you! As soon as Red Hood is gone, Nightwing says to the others, "We need to neutralize that guy, soon. But we had better make sure everyone upstairs is all right before the police get here." "Paramedics a block away." Robin is already looking at his computer and tracking the progress of the authorities, before he moves to follow after both Nightwing and Batwing. "... and who the hell is the White Rabbit, anyway?" He'll never understand criminal insults. Batwing looks to Nightwing "A block, they'll be here soon enough," he puts away his weapons and moves to a window, ready to get out of here. Nightwing nods, "Sounds good, a quick swing upstairs and then out. Not going to let anyone die if I can help it." With that, he heads upstairs.